CALLED: injustice

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

injustice

What do you do when you know someone is lying is pretending to be something they are not to their partner?

I spend a fair bit of my time inhabiting a virtual world called Second Life (SL). On its website, it says "Second Life is an online, 3D virtual world imagined and created by its Residents."

If you are familiar with Habbo, MMORPGs like World of Warcraft (WOW), and even the Sims video games, then you have an idea of what SL is like.

Unlike WOW, however, there is no 'endpoint', no quests to undertake, no XP to gain. In this aspect it is more like the Sims, a game which allows you relative freedom to create whatever scenario you desire with your characters. In SL, however, you control your avatar and use it to chat with others, so in this aspect it most closely resembles Habbo, except that you have even more freedom to customise your avatar.

You really can look like anything you can imagine in SL - from the standard human ones to the really weird ones like a walking, talking electric fan, or even a burger. Of course, the latter two are made by the Japanese! In SL, you have the freedom to be whatever you want.

I have so much to say about avatars in SL, but this post is not SL fashion or SL culture. This post is about another category of avatar - what I shall call the Imposter. Sadly, there're a number of them stalking around SL, preying on innocent victims and giving a bad name generally to virtual worlds.

What I mean, specifically, is men who pretend to be women in SL and actually have relationships with other men online.

For what reason they do this I don't know - perhaps they are gay or have a secret desire to be a woman. Fair and well - everyone has the freedom to be whatever they wish to be in SL. But I think when you start to lie and cheat at the expense of others, it's just...wrong.

I know one such person. Nearly everyone in the Singapore SL community that I 'belong' to (there's no official membership, more like a loose gathering of friends at a common location) knows his dirty secret, because many of us have seen him in real life (we meet up quite regularly). Of course, he's not a regular at these offline meetups. Most male newcomers are often warned early about him as well. There is the odd one or two who fall through the gaps and into his trap.

One in particular is going to 'get married' with him in October! Yes, you can get married in SL, but that's another topic altogether.

The irony is that this hapless fella who has so 'fallen' for our Imposter is Malay............... "Tak halal," as my friend said of the latter once.

I've been rather troubled by this turn of events. So much so that I even dreamt of private messaging this guy to tell him, "Your girlfriend is really a man in real life, you know."

The problem is I don't know if he is only 'playing' or for real. There are SL couples for whom their couplehood only exists online, and they share this common understanding. Yet even for these couples, there are often 'real' feelings and affection involved, feelings that exist when neither are logged on.

"The neurochemistry is the same," another friend once said of virtual relationships. The line between virtual and real is too easily blurred. You can say, "It's only SL!" but I believe the things one does and says online are rooted in reality.

This is what I'm concerned about - it may be only an online thing, but it's also possible to get hurt. But it's a bit of a dilemna; which do you protect - one individual's freedom to be whatever he wishes to be in SL, or another individual's right to the truth and his 'feelings', of whatever nature they may be?

Yet he has chosen for himself, albeit in extremely poor judgement. I mean, hello...the Imposter's female avatar is not even the most attractive around!

What I'm most disturbed by is the fact that we are hidden accomplices in the Imposter's selfish plan by keeping mum. Oh, we protest, of course. By being sarcastic, being exaggerated, copying their style of PDA. Some more bluntly than others. Or pretending to be afk (away from keyboard) when they are around and doing their disgusting PDA thing.

Then again, the Imposter's relationships have never lasted for very long.

posted by esther @ 5:02 PM

2 Comments:

At 11:17 AM, Anonymous said…

Hey, what you wrote here does sound pretty scroundellish of those guys. They think they are having fun while people actually take it more seriously than they know...that is very inconsiderate.

On your last post, i do think you have really nice eyes! They are large and gentle. Very feminine!

Kah Ming
At 9:46 PM, esther said…

they are actually lots of people with avatars different from their gender, and a lot of them are guys with female avatars. i know a few of such people, both male and female. some of them don't morph between male and female avatars, and some always stay the same. some of them reveal their true gender, and some don't.

the difference between them is that they don't go around looking for partners and cheating other people of their feelings.

thanks for your compliment kah ming! :)